I couldn't agree more...

Came across this person's blog on theage.com.au on my night shift.

Hating the beach

Dare I say it? I hate the beach. Yep, hate the hot, windy, sandy, smelly beach. Yeah, I know, that's almost heresy here in Oz -- and yes, I was taken to the beach as a kid like every other Aussie kid (and regularly got burnt to a crisp).

This week, during our blistering heatwave, the standard cliched TV news footage showed lemmings fleeing there in droves, hip-hopping over scorching sand to the shallows to ``escape the heat''. But they are not escaping at all. I can't think of anywhere hotter, more uncomfortable, more unpleasant than on a steaming beach on a day of 43 degrees.
What's wrong with these people? Am I the only one with any sense? You travel there in a cauldron on wheels, jammed in traffic on shimmering bitumen along with other lemmings doing the same.

You clamber to find a spot out of the sun, maybe erect an umbrella, and sit on a towel with sand blowing in your face, invading your anatomical cavities. You have to negotiate rocks and dog turds and discarded junk (maybe even syringes) on the burning sands searching for your Spot and when you find it, you have to sprint over a hotplate to get to the water. By the time you return to your towel, you're hot again. Salt dries on your skin, flies hover, maybe the odd mosquito if dusk approaches.

Your sandwiches go limp, water goes warm. Big flabby human elephants trudge by, like exhibits from some ghoulish horror show. Noise pests rev up motorboats and jet skis off-shore.
Meanwhile, back home, your blessed homestead sits shaded by the overhanging tree, air-conditioner and giant TV at the ready, refrigerator packed with cool drinks, snacks. There's ice in the freezer, no sand in your jocks, a shelf full of good books whose pages won't blow over in the wind or burn out your retinas with reflected glare. Bliss!

I think I'll just crack open a stubby by the fountain. Just in time to watch the TV news showing those lunatics frying on the bayside beaches. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, ouch, ouch, ouch.

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I couldn't agree more with what he's got to say. I love the beach, don't get me wrong... but not when it's 43 degrees outside, and with a gazillion other big flabby people, fighting for a spot on the beach.

And the raging bush fire @ Gippsland hasn't helped the temperature either... sigh. Apparently, it's deliberately lit too! Who would wanna do such a thing?!! It's horribleeee!!! I hope they'd burn in hell for creating this disaster... 

To everyone returning to school / work today - Hopefully the train services have improved. Have a good week, everybody~!